TSivia
One year: Looking back at a life moving forward
Sep 22, 2008
Well my sister said I should say something, so here goes.
Saturday of this past week (20 Sept) was the first anniversary of my RnY with Dr. William Graber in Utica (New Hartford) NY. Wow...has that much time gone by already???
At my highest we figure my weight was right in around 400 lbs. My day-of-surgery weight was 363.4 as I recall, with a day-of-surgery BMI of 55 (I believe that my highest BMI was 63!). I had sleep apnea (stopped breathing twice a MINUTE), high cholesterol, high blood pressure (a highest-point of 210/180...but I had been on VIOXX for 3 yrs at that point too!), osteoarthritis since I was 16, type II diabetes, and the start of peripheral artery disease. NOT to mention the times my bladder wouldn't QUITE hold on till I got to the bathroom....!!
And what are things like one year post-op??
Well as of last week my weight was 239 lbs, with a current BMI of 36.4. Just about everything in that litany of illness is gone or under diet-only control (Osteo is there but I only take anti-inflammatories now every 2 to 3 days instead of daily and STILL grousing about how much I hurt!).
I don't fall like I used to. I move at what used to be double-speed, and a flight of stairs now makes me wonder "I had trouble with THIS??". I don't have to turn sideways to get through a turnstile. I can wear HEELS (can't do that with 400 lbs all focussed on the balls of your feet!)! Suddenly my clothes cupboard is silks, cottons, linens, instead of rayon and polyester. And I don't wear my meals on my chest anymore!!! Heck, there's even lots of extra "Give" to the seatbelt in my car and the steering wheel doesn't rub on my pants.
And I've had one of 2 cataracts already corrected, with the 2nd surgery due in about a month. Then I get to shuck the eyeglasses I've been wearing since GRADE 4, TOO! I've also let my hair grow out to its natural silver and black, from a shoepolish dark-brown dye.
Anyone want to nominate me for one of those "makeover" shows? Heck I don't have a clue how to dress anymore!
The medical professionals who backed up my application for gastric bypass surgery have LITERALLY saved my life. Wow.
http://www.obesityhelp.com/member/tsivia has the before-and-after pictures of me on an Aug 07 cruise, and an August 08 cruise. Same dress, different colour and size. I think those side-by-side pictures say volumes.
I'm still losing, but now about 3 to 4 lbs/month. My pre-surgery goal was about 220 lbs and I've missed about a month of workouts (I'm back in the gym actually today!). I figure that with workouts and after plastics, I'll be there or maybe even a little lower.
Bottom line?
Before surgery: size 36 women's pants, size 28 tops (Cotton Ginny plus XL)
1 Year post-op: size 20/22 women's pants, size 16/18 tops! (Cotton Ginny regular XL or plus Small tops)
I can't even say that I have my life BACK, since I've been fat or obese nearly all of my life (since I was around 6 yrs of age). Rather, I am finally GETTING MY LIFE. And I like it...a lot!
Just thought I'd share.
<
Shelley
Almost ONE YEAR later: how fast time flies!!
Sep 13, 2008
Goodness: my surgery was on September 20/07 and here it is, 13 Sept. 08. How fast time flies when you're melting away!!
One of the wonderful folks at the Barrie Ont OSSG group took the pictures of me from my cruise pre-surgery with my sister, and the post-surgery cruise picture, and put them side-by-side. WOW.
I wore the dress I had purchased for my mom when I bought mine (hers was red, mine black: same identical styles!) and tried to pose about the same way I remembered the picture of a year before. (One of my ex-boyfriends quipped "OH I see the difference: you changed bracelets!". Beggar!!) Even the shoes...the ankles. Omigawsh!!
It's the little things that still get me daily: I paid attention and it's true: I do NOT have to turn sideways to get through a turnstile anymore! (Even skinny ones!) I managed a NINE DAY cruise and, not only did I NOT gain weight, I LOST SOME! (This always happens to me on cruises, since my overall activity level skyrockets even though the food levels do as well!)
My weight as of 10 Sept was 239. I canNOT remember the last time I was that small....not even after a year on amphetamines back in 1977!!! We're guess-timating that my highest weight was just in around 400 lbs back around 2006, as I worked out in aquafit and the gym for about six months and did other little things to try and shuck a little of the weight.
The day of surgery I was 363. That means I've actually lost 124 lbs SINCE the surgery, and that is SO MUCH nothing to sneeze at!! And as my sister quips, "clothing IS YOUR FRIEND" after this kind of fast weight-loss too. EVERYthing sags and bags (except my back: she's jealous that I won't have "love handles"!), and my breasts are indeed like my pre-surgery joke: Q: "What size are your boobs?" A: "OH: 44 double-long!" heh heh. BUT I did this to regain my health, and indeed, my LIFE, not to look sexy. (But I DO!)
I can't wait until I have the cash and have been stable weight-wise, for plastics. I anticipate a complete lower-body lift as that's where I have always carried most of my weight. The good news is that I am actually in a size 22 pant, 20 skirt, and 16/18 jacket NOW! (Omigawd!!!!) My thighs literallly droop, my panne's at least 5 inches of hang (you don't want to see where my belly button lives! LOL), and my arms...well I think I"m a distant genetic cousin to bats. heh heh. I can anticipate size 16/18 pants after plastics, I expect.
It's a good thing I am NOT a carb-oholic: I see that they're easy to eat and that can really add the pounds right back on. I've always been a "meataholic" as I put it: just hold the cheesecake and hand me a 2nd slab of cow. I'm particularly thankful that I can still EAT most of the proteins I ate before surgery: I gather a lot of folks find beef problematic, and so forth.
What I don't eat anymore and actually make me quite green, are any and all FRIED FOODS! (hhooooorahhhh!) I only buy BAKED potato chips and even at that, can only eat about a dozen chips before I start to feel a little queasy (the manufacturer still does put oil on 'em!). I doubt I'll ever set foot in a KFC again unless I'm picking someone up from there (GRIN!), and the only thing I'm sort of sad about is that I anticipate not finding much joy in tempura'ed food either. But it's a small darn tradeoff for FINDING MY LIFE.
I don't use the phrase "regaining" my life since I really never had it. I"m from a fat family, and most of my grandparents were obese as well. I started to pack on the pounds around 4 to 6 years of age - sexual abuse may have had something to do with that as well. I was 12 when I was put on my first diet: the Stillman Diet, precursor to the trendy Atkins diet but nearly the same thing! My dad lost 100 lbs on it, and I lost about 40...and of course, we BOTh gained back more than we had lost afterwards.
The sleep apnea is gone.
The high blood sugars are gone.
The blood pressure is normal.
The cholesterol is normal.
The arthritis pain has gone to a "dull roar" and I take meds every 2 to 3 days, rather than daily (and barely feeling the difference).
There are days when I'm still afraid I am the freak in the room: the woman EVERYONE stares at, or tries NOT to stare at, because of size. But in truth, that's just MY HEAD talking. The body isn't that woman anymore.
It was SO rewarding to go to the 75th birthday party of my undergraduate advisor this month. I don't even recall if I had told her about the surgery (I think I did...) or not, but the hair is all salt-pepper now and I'm only 2/3 the woman I used to be. I walked in the room and she literally stood up from her seat (she is using a walker, with bad knees) and just gasped at me. (HEH) That was worth every second of queasiness, self-doubt, and everything else we go through.
My GOAL is 220 lbs. I believe I can make it: I'm still dropping somewhere between 4 and 7 lbs/month from what I can tell. That is down from 4 to 7 lbs/WEEK of course, which is why I'm always afraid I've now hit the non-workout low weight.
I'm a month w/out any workouts as I'm trying to reschedule them due to the changes in my personal schedule. Being a university professor means you have different course-slots each semester and that can be a pain when setting up workout routines. But I never thought I'd hear this: I LOVE WORKING OUT AND I MISS IT!!
Yes, I'm still in the "honeymoon stage" post-surgery but isn't it loverly??
And *I* believe in honeymoons lasting forever.
Random thoughts late at night, almost a year out of surgery.
One of the wonderful folks at the Barrie Ont OSSG group took the pictures of me from my cruise pre-surgery with my sister, and the post-surgery cruise picture, and put them side-by-side. WOW.
I wore the dress I had purchased for my mom when I bought mine (hers was red, mine black: same identical styles!) and tried to pose about the same way I remembered the picture of a year before. (One of my ex-boyfriends quipped "OH I see the difference: you changed bracelets!". Beggar!!) Even the shoes...the ankles. Omigawsh!!
It's the little things that still get me daily: I paid attention and it's true: I do NOT have to turn sideways to get through a turnstile anymore! (Even skinny ones!) I managed a NINE DAY cruise and, not only did I NOT gain weight, I LOST SOME! (This always happens to me on cruises, since my overall activity level skyrockets even though the food levels do as well!)
My weight as of 10 Sept was 239. I canNOT remember the last time I was that small....not even after a year on amphetamines back in 1977!!! We're guess-timating that my highest weight was just in around 400 lbs back around 2006, as I worked out in aquafit and the gym for about six months and did other little things to try and shuck a little of the weight.
The day of surgery I was 363. That means I've actually lost 124 lbs SINCE the surgery, and that is SO MUCH nothing to sneeze at!! And as my sister quips, "clothing IS YOUR FRIEND" after this kind of fast weight-loss too. EVERYthing sags and bags (except my back: she's jealous that I won't have "love handles"!), and my breasts are indeed like my pre-surgery joke: Q: "What size are your boobs?" A: "OH: 44 double-long!" heh heh. BUT I did this to regain my health, and indeed, my LIFE, not to look sexy. (But I DO!)
I can't wait until I have the cash and have been stable weight-wise, for plastics. I anticipate a complete lower-body lift as that's where I have always carried most of my weight. The good news is that I am actually in a size 22 pant, 20 skirt, and 16/18 jacket NOW! (Omigawd!!!!) My thighs literallly droop, my panne's at least 5 inches of hang (you don't want to see where my belly button lives! LOL), and my arms...well I think I"m a distant genetic cousin to bats. heh heh. I can anticipate size 16/18 pants after plastics, I expect.
It's a good thing I am NOT a carb-oholic: I see that they're easy to eat and that can really add the pounds right back on. I've always been a "meataholic" as I put it: just hold the cheesecake and hand me a 2nd slab of cow. I'm particularly thankful that I can still EAT most of the proteins I ate before surgery: I gather a lot of folks find beef problematic, and so forth.
What I don't eat anymore and actually make me quite green, are any and all FRIED FOODS! (hhooooorahhhh!) I only buy BAKED potato chips and even at that, can only eat about a dozen chips before I start to feel a little queasy (the manufacturer still does put oil on 'em!). I doubt I'll ever set foot in a KFC again unless I'm picking someone up from there (GRIN!), and the only thing I'm sort of sad about is that I anticipate not finding much joy in tempura'ed food either. But it's a small darn tradeoff for FINDING MY LIFE.
I don't use the phrase "regaining" my life since I really never had it. I"m from a fat family, and most of my grandparents were obese as well. I started to pack on the pounds around 4 to 6 years of age - sexual abuse may have had something to do with that as well. I was 12 when I was put on my first diet: the Stillman Diet, precursor to the trendy Atkins diet but nearly the same thing! My dad lost 100 lbs on it, and I lost about 40...and of course, we BOTh gained back more than we had lost afterwards.
The sleep apnea is gone.
The high blood sugars are gone.
The blood pressure is normal.
The cholesterol is normal.
The arthritis pain has gone to a "dull roar" and I take meds every 2 to 3 days, rather than daily (and barely feeling the difference).
There are days when I'm still afraid I am the freak in the room: the woman EVERYONE stares at, or tries NOT to stare at, because of size. But in truth, that's just MY HEAD talking. The body isn't that woman anymore.
It was SO rewarding to go to the 75th birthday party of my undergraduate advisor this month. I don't even recall if I had told her about the surgery (I think I did...) or not, but the hair is all salt-pepper now and I'm only 2/3 the woman I used to be. I walked in the room and she literally stood up from her seat (she is using a walker, with bad knees) and just gasped at me. (HEH) That was worth every second of queasiness, self-doubt, and everything else we go through.
My GOAL is 220 lbs. I believe I can make it: I'm still dropping somewhere between 4 and 7 lbs/month from what I can tell. That is down from 4 to 7 lbs/WEEK of course, which is why I'm always afraid I've now hit the non-workout low weight.
I'm a month w/out any workouts as I'm trying to reschedule them due to the changes in my personal schedule. Being a university professor means you have different course-slots each semester and that can be a pain when setting up workout routines. But I never thought I'd hear this: I LOVE WORKING OUT AND I MISS IT!!
Yes, I'm still in the "honeymoon stage" post-surgery but isn't it loverly??
And *I* believe in honeymoons lasting forever.
Random thoughts late at night, almost a year out of surgery.
Been too long since I updated this
Mar 16, 2008
Well my goodness: how fast six months have gone!!
I keep checking with my sister Carolyn to make sure I'm still "on time/on target" and so I am. I'm one of those people who is still fighting the "I'll do something wrong" or "I'll regain it all" head-space.
My specialist in Ottawa, Dr. Dent and I figure I was around 375 lbs at my heaviest, about a year prior to surgery (I spent about six months doing gym workouts and aquafit), so in February of 08 while visiting my best friend in L.A., I realized that by her home scale, I had now lost 100 lbs since my highest weight! I started to cry. WOW. UNreal!
So where am I now, six months in? Pre-surgery was 343 lbs, and the gym scale at the university says I'm now at 266.
This means I went from an all time high of size 36 women's blue jeans (NON stretch) to a current size of 24 and still losing. Tops were 5x (and larger if they weren't stretchy and I wanted to BUTTON IT UP!), now down to 20/22's. Not a big change in shoe-size. Most of my rings sorta still fit but my bracelets are LOST ON ME now. Turns out I have bird-like bones!!
I'm also growing my startling-silver hair out from a few years of very dark brown hairdye...another shock to those who haven't seen me in a few years. Change in glasses (shape, colour, etc.)...I was at my medieval group's 2nd biggest "war", near Phoenix AZ in Feb and folks I know walked RIGHT BY ME without recognizing me!!
Physically, the big "high" was fitting into the commercial airline seatbelt withOUT a seat belt extender (I'll have one to sell if anyone wants one!! LOL), and being able to use MY OWN tray-table w/out needing to use the one of the person sitting next to me (OR NOT sitting next to me!). I don't "leak" over the next person's seat when I sit down either. WOW.
My mom died last June and I took home a few pieces of her good clothing, since I had decided to go for surgery before she died. Well her stuff was in the 18/20 size range and I NEVER seriously expected any of it to fit. Well GUESS what I'm wearing to a formal shindig at the end of this month: the formal black 3/4 length beaded gown I bought her (that she never wore) in size EIGHTEEN!!! Yes that's right: 18! I just cried when I was able to fit into it...
I"m finally into a size I never expected to see again: 24 pants. I bought a BUNCH of slacks and pants in this size over the holidays of 07 anticipating that it was the size I would more or less end up at (PESSIMISTIC ME!) and now I will be lucky if I can wear each pair for one week before I lose enough weight that they'll be falling off. I'm offering a lot of my very large clothing to one of the grad students in my department as I think she's in the 4x/5x range. She seems thrilled.
The size 18 dress leaves me dumbfounded. I canNOT remember the last time I fit into something that small...probably when I was around 20.
At this rate I may well make "251" (lbs) by "51" (age) since my birthday is in mid-May.
Sticking to the suggested eating regimes isn't that hard since I've never had much of a "sweet" tooth: my downfall has always been PROTEINS. Cow good. Pig good. Bird good. YUM! And the discomfort of eating even a TINY BIT too much is just not worth it anymore. Hoorah for aversion therapy I tell ya!
I've also bought some small baby-food containers of beef, chicken, turkey, and ham: perfect portion control, doesn't need refrigeration: talk about "take out" food!
My main downfall is potato chips, but I can't eat more than about 10 of them before the grease makes me feel positively BILLIOUS (read, pukey)! And I am only eating EXPENSIVE chips since I don't much like or tolerate SALT in my food anymore (so much for convenience foods like deli!!) - and at about $3.99 for one bag of blue potato chips, I won't be eating THOSE every day, that's for SURE!!
Frankly, I"d say I"m being about 70% to 85% good and compliant. I'd say I'm physically eating about 25% of what I used to eat at any given meal, and watching so that I don't "boredom" eat at all.
Life's different post-op but I wouldn't trade the occasional discomfort of eating too fast, or too much, for a single moment anymore. My blood pressure's down nearly to normal, pulse rate is down, diabetes nearly disappeared (my fasting blood is between 6.3 and 7, on the Cdn. reading scale!). I'm DREAMING again (WOW) so the sleep apnea is either gone or nearly so.
Oh yeah: and about 3 months I got a real shocker from my cardiologist. Apparently the pre-surgery PET scan actually showed that I probably had a micro-heart attack in the last couple of years before surgery!!! OMIGAWD. I really DID make this decision just before I dropped dead.
I just do not have enough words to thank my sister for urging me to have the surgery as well. Maybe she and I will book plastic surgery at the same time and have a "sister's week out".
Going up the stairs in my townhouse is now nearly effortless (and I used to plan my entire evening so I would have to "hump" up/down those stairs as infrequently as possible per night!) and I managed to do them WITHOUT HOLDING ONTO THE WALL OR RAIL this week! Less pain, more energy, wider stride when I'm shopping, etc. etc.
A million little triumphs, and I"m counting each one!
Just wanted folks to know how I'm doing.
Cheers and to those of you who observe them, Happy St. Patrick's Day and Happy Easter!
Shelley
I keep checking with my sister Carolyn to make sure I'm still "on time/on target" and so I am. I'm one of those people who is still fighting the "I'll do something wrong" or "I'll regain it all" head-space.
My specialist in Ottawa, Dr. Dent and I figure I was around 375 lbs at my heaviest, about a year prior to surgery (I spent about six months doing gym workouts and aquafit), so in February of 08 while visiting my best friend in L.A., I realized that by her home scale, I had now lost 100 lbs since my highest weight! I started to cry. WOW. UNreal!
So where am I now, six months in? Pre-surgery was 343 lbs, and the gym scale at the university says I'm now at 266.
This means I went from an all time high of size 36 women's blue jeans (NON stretch) to a current size of 24 and still losing. Tops were 5x (and larger if they weren't stretchy and I wanted to BUTTON IT UP!), now down to 20/22's. Not a big change in shoe-size. Most of my rings sorta still fit but my bracelets are LOST ON ME now. Turns out I have bird-like bones!!
I'm also growing my startling-silver hair out from a few years of very dark brown hairdye...another shock to those who haven't seen me in a few years. Change in glasses (shape, colour, etc.)...I was at my medieval group's 2nd biggest "war", near Phoenix AZ in Feb and folks I know walked RIGHT BY ME without recognizing me!!
Physically, the big "high" was fitting into the commercial airline seatbelt withOUT a seat belt extender (I'll have one to sell if anyone wants one!! LOL), and being able to use MY OWN tray-table w/out needing to use the one of the person sitting next to me (OR NOT sitting next to me!). I don't "leak" over the next person's seat when I sit down either. WOW.
My mom died last June and I took home a few pieces of her good clothing, since I had decided to go for surgery before she died. Well her stuff was in the 18/20 size range and I NEVER seriously expected any of it to fit. Well GUESS what I'm wearing to a formal shindig at the end of this month: the formal black 3/4 length beaded gown I bought her (that she never wore) in size EIGHTEEN!!! Yes that's right: 18! I just cried when I was able to fit into it...
I"m finally into a size I never expected to see again: 24 pants. I bought a BUNCH of slacks and pants in this size over the holidays of 07 anticipating that it was the size I would more or less end up at (PESSIMISTIC ME!) and now I will be lucky if I can wear each pair for one week before I lose enough weight that they'll be falling off. I'm offering a lot of my very large clothing to one of the grad students in my department as I think she's in the 4x/5x range. She seems thrilled.
The size 18 dress leaves me dumbfounded. I canNOT remember the last time I fit into something that small...probably when I was around 20.
At this rate I may well make "251" (lbs) by "51" (age) since my birthday is in mid-May.
Sticking to the suggested eating regimes isn't that hard since I've never had much of a "sweet" tooth: my downfall has always been PROTEINS. Cow good. Pig good. Bird good. YUM! And the discomfort of eating even a TINY BIT too much is just not worth it anymore. Hoorah for aversion therapy I tell ya!
I've also bought some small baby-food containers of beef, chicken, turkey, and ham: perfect portion control, doesn't need refrigeration: talk about "take out" food!
My main downfall is potato chips, but I can't eat more than about 10 of them before the grease makes me feel positively BILLIOUS (read, pukey)! And I am only eating EXPENSIVE chips since I don't much like or tolerate SALT in my food anymore (so much for convenience foods like deli!!) - and at about $3.99 for one bag of blue potato chips, I won't be eating THOSE every day, that's for SURE!!
Frankly, I"d say I"m being about 70% to 85% good and compliant. I'd say I'm physically eating about 25% of what I used to eat at any given meal, and watching so that I don't "boredom" eat at all.
Life's different post-op but I wouldn't trade the occasional discomfort of eating too fast, or too much, for a single moment anymore. My blood pressure's down nearly to normal, pulse rate is down, diabetes nearly disappeared (my fasting blood is between 6.3 and 7, on the Cdn. reading scale!). I'm DREAMING again (WOW) so the sleep apnea is either gone or nearly so.
Oh yeah: and about 3 months I got a real shocker from my cardiologist. Apparently the pre-surgery PET scan actually showed that I probably had a micro-heart attack in the last couple of years before surgery!!! OMIGAWD. I really DID make this decision just before I dropped dead.
I just do not have enough words to thank my sister for urging me to have the surgery as well. Maybe she and I will book plastic surgery at the same time and have a "sister's week out".
Going up the stairs in my townhouse is now nearly effortless (and I used to plan my entire evening so I would have to "hump" up/down those stairs as infrequently as possible per night!) and I managed to do them WITHOUT HOLDING ONTO THE WALL OR RAIL this week! Less pain, more energy, wider stride when I'm shopping, etc. etc.
A million little triumphs, and I"m counting each one!
Just wanted folks to know how I'm doing.
Cheers and to those of you who observe them, Happy St. Patrick's Day and Happy Easter!
Shelley
IT's almost here!
Sep 10, 2007
Well I've had ups and downs and all around's...but it's almost here! I go to Utica/New Hartford NY on FRIDAY for a Saturday nutritionist consult and Monday pre-surgery consult at the hospital (Faxton-St. Luke's) and TAA DAA! Tuesday I start the trip from fat to deflated . I've been already describing myself as the "future Shar Pei" woman.
This entire process has gone like greased lightning for a Canadian: instead of a 5 yr wait for the proceedure at home (like my sister had) I was whisked through the out-of-country process IN TWO WEEKS! So my provincial plan covers all the surgery (I'll get some of the hospital and gas costs back on my income tax next year too). I get the Roux en y surgery for FREE!
My co-morbidities?
At 50 yrs of age I have a BMI of over 50 (yoicks! One point per year!?!?).
Type II Diabetic since age 42
(Severe hypogylcaemic since age 26)
high cholesterol
high blood pressure
severe sleep apnea (I underbreathe or stop over 100 times PER HOUR and get NO deep or dream sleep!)
osteoarthritis since I was 16
I take so many pills that I rattle when I walk. And the FDA or Canadian equivalent keep withdrawing my )_&%_#& meds too!!
One of the gals in the Barrie ON OSSG Group had a great idea...a list of what she wanted post-surgery.
I want:
to get rhough turnstiles w/out getting my pant pockets stuck
to go through aisles in restaurants w/out having to turn sideways
to see my toes (I HAVE TOES?????)
to sit in seats with arms w/out hating them
to be able to take the tray-table down in MY seat on an airplane
to ride a jet w/out having to ask for a seatbelt extender
to stop hearing jibes about my fat butt
to be able to lie down w/out having to "place" the fat rolls so they don't get pinched
to scamper up my stairs, not 'haul out' as they say with walruses
to be able to choose my clothing by cut and colour not by what FITS
NOT to stick out in a crowd due to my girth
to dance, run, work out, w/out feeling like I'm gonna die doing it
to live to a hundred years, or as close to it as my genetics will let me!
to hurt less
to not feel trapped in this monster-body.
It'll be an adventure, that's for sure!
Shelley, one week pre-surgery!
This entire process has gone like greased lightning for a Canadian: instead of a 5 yr wait for the proceedure at home (like my sister had) I was whisked through the out-of-country process IN TWO WEEKS! So my provincial plan covers all the surgery (I'll get some of the hospital and gas costs back on my income tax next year too). I get the Roux en y surgery for FREE!
My co-morbidities?
At 50 yrs of age I have a BMI of over 50 (yoicks! One point per year!?!?).
Type II Diabetic since age 42
(Severe hypogylcaemic since age 26)
high cholesterol
high blood pressure
severe sleep apnea (I underbreathe or stop over 100 times PER HOUR and get NO deep or dream sleep!)
osteoarthritis since I was 16
I take so many pills that I rattle when I walk. And the FDA or Canadian equivalent keep withdrawing my )_&%_#& meds too!!
One of the gals in the Barrie ON OSSG Group had a great idea...a list of what she wanted post-surgery.
I want:
to get rhough turnstiles w/out getting my pant pockets stuck
to go through aisles in restaurants w/out having to turn sideways
to see my toes (I HAVE TOES?????)
to sit in seats with arms w/out hating them
to be able to take the tray-table down in MY seat on an airplane
to ride a jet w/out having to ask for a seatbelt extender
to stop hearing jibes about my fat butt
to be able to lie down w/out having to "place" the fat rolls so they don't get pinched
to scamper up my stairs, not 'haul out' as they say with walruses
to be able to choose my clothing by cut and colour not by what FITS
NOT to stick out in a crowd due to my girth
to dance, run, work out, w/out feeling like I'm gonna die doing it
to live to a hundred years, or as close to it as my genetics will let me!
to hurt less
to not feel trapped in this monster-body.
It'll be an adventure, that's for sure!
Shelley, one week pre-surgery!
